Parks and Rec

There are 153 posts filed in Parks and Rec (this is page 7 of 16).

High Speed Rail at Pullen Park

My buddy Reid Serozi has dreamed up an amuzing alternative universe where high-speed rail replaces the Pullen Park choo-choo. That Matt Furner character hits close to home, too.

There is confidence that compromises between city planning and local park goers can be worked out in the years to come, and the hope is to have high-speed rail running around Pullen park by 3080.

Matt Furner, the city’s parks board chairman and a community organizer in East Raleigh wasn’t available for comment due to his "open source email solution" being accidentally blacklisted, but rumors suggest the high speed rail idea originated after a Furner Family visit to Disney Land.

via Reid Serozi – Open Raleigh: High Speed Rail at Pullen Park.

Raleigh to involve public sooner in parks planning

I was quoted in this morning’s Midtown Raleigh News on the new Public Participation Process for Raleigh Parks.

After a string of park projects beset by opposition battles and lengthy delays, the city’s parks and rec department will soon overhaul the way it works with the public during planning for future parks, ballfields and gyms.

The proposed guidelines, laid out in exhaustive detail in three documents totaling 89 pages, are intended to pinpoint areas of disagreement and bring together citizens groups to give suggestions, particularly when controversial projects are involved.

The idea is to resolve disputes early and not let them fester, said City Manager Russell Allen.

“The hope is that if you take time up front, you don’t get snagged later in the development of the project and run into an element of the public that never bought in,” Allen said.

via Raleigh to involve public sooner in parks planning – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park

News and Observer reporter Matt Garfield wrote a captivating article about the Devereux Meadows site one day being a park again after 30 years as a trash truck parking lot.

It reminded me of Leo Suarez’s look back at the old ball park from two years ago.

RALEIGH — An expanse of land just north of downtown moved closer to a greener future this month when the city began relocating a sanitation and fleet yard to a new home outside the Beltline.

The land, which has spent the past 30 years as a parking lot for garbage trucks, is envisioned as a park and greenway that supporters hope will enliven an aging gateway into downtown.

Called Devereux Meadows, the planned 15-acre park takes its name from the minor league ballpark that once anchored the site along the west side of Capital Boulevard between Peace Street and Wade Avenue.

via Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park – Wake County – NewsObserver.com.

Encouraging volunteerism

On my way out of the municipal building yesterday, I passed Cindy Trumbower, volunteer coordinator of the city’s Parks and Rec program. She told me she just got back from a volunteer event where a bunch of students from Michigan State University had painted a city gymnasium as part of their Spring Break service. These kids didn’t hit the beach and stay drunk and rowdy for a week (even being from a chilly place like Michigan) but instead gave their time to help others. How cool is that? I thought that was just awesome and asked if she could provide the Parks board details at our next meeting.
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City council appearance

I made an appearance at Raleigh City Council this afternoon for a Parks board item which requested the city apply for status as a Playful City USA. Before I got to the microphone, the Council told me they were all fine with the agreement and promptly voted unanimously to approve it. It took me longer to put on my suit than it did to present the item, which was a welcome change!

The Council also approved making recycling theft a crime. Only District B Councilor John Odom voted against it, which is surprising to me. I thought he would be all for protecting the city from having to raise its recycling fees, and willing to protect the privacy of his constituents by discouraging strangers rummaging through their recycling. I’m not sure his reasoning, since at one point during today’s debate he said he “wasn’t against” the ordinance yet voted against it anyway.

With multiple homes in my neighborhood losing their air conditioning units (one just two doors down) to metal-scavenging thieves, I feel we should discourage these jackasses from prowling the neighborhood. Hopefully this will help.

Update 7 March: In response to a comment on the N&O story about this, let me say again: this isn’t about homeless people, it’s about professional metal scavengers working neighborhoods. Homeless people don’t fill up their pickup trucks with cans (and work in teams, for that matter). Folks need to apply some common sense here.
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Coble throws volunteers under the bus

I’m still in disbelief over last week’s meeting of the Wake County Commissioners in which chair Paul Coble completely dissed a report on sustainability that the Commission itself requested and whose task force Commissioner Joe Bryan chaired.

I have served as an unpaid, volunteer member of various city boards for over three years now. I don’t do it for the money, or to enrich myself, or for the prestige. I do it because I love Raleigh and want to help it grow. The countless hours I’ve devoted to these causes; all the evenings I missed tucking my kids in for bed; all the soccer, baseball and basketball games I’ve missed; those are sacrifices I’ve accepted because I feel its important to serve the greater good. Like everyone else, I have only so many days to live on this planet and I like to know that my time matters.
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Active day

Wow, what a day! It started off with a lazy start. After breakfast I spent time upgrading our home’s main Linux fileserver. This was followed by some family basketball practice.

After basketball practice, I headed over to attend the first anniversary celebration of the St. Monica Teen Center, a center where magic takes place in Southeast Raleigh. It was good to chat with folks there and to see how proud those kids are to have that center.

After the St. Monica party, I grabbed lunch before heading out the door for Travis’s basketball game. The Salvation Army was short on referees today so I was “volunteered” to referee the game (along with a coach from the other team). The teams played a good game and I had fun with it, too.
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